President Alberto Fernandez today signed a new decree that provides for a fifth salary hierarchy for researchers at the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET).
The signing took place this afternoon in the Casa Rosada Office of the President and Chief of Staff Agustín Rossi; and Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmes; Official sources said.
This is the fifth pay hierarchy for CONCET researchers, which will affect 15,000 members in scientific and technical researcher and professional and assistant technician careers, and more than 12,000 scholarship holders and doctorates and postdocs, as of June 1.
Sources said the decree would be published in the official gazette tomorrow.
A new pay rise of 10 per cent has been added to the joint agreement for the sector agreed last year, which will make it possible to recover to 2015 levels, the real amount of career pay suffered after a loss of 28.5%. Scientific Researcher (CIC) and Consett Scholarship during the administration of former President Mauricio Macri.
After the meeting, Filmus told accredited journalists at Government House that “we have put into practice the commitment that we agreed with the President more than a month ago, which is to give 10% of the salary hierarchy.”
“This is the fifth installment of 10%, which allows us to liquidate our management after recovering the salaries of researchers in 2015,” he said, adding that between 2015 and 2019 “researchers, trainees and CONISET support staff fell 32%.” They went”.
In this sense, he recalled that “it was certainly salaries that were most affected as the science and technology budget fell suddenly from 0.25% to 0.22% of GDP, and this fifth tranche of the hierarchy has to recover it.” was allowed to do. 32%”.
Filmus highlighted that “this was a historic demand from CONSEC researchers and support staff that today has been turned into a reality by the President.”
As part of a policy addressing the strategic nature of investment in science and technology, the government gave five rankings of 10% each from 2019: in November 2020, April and November 2021, August 2022 and June 2023.
Thus, the process of recovery of purchasing power of wages in the sector began, which will reach 2015 levels in June.
Similarly, scholarships were recovering from a decline until they are currently above 2015.
In the meeting with the President, Filmus said that “we had a long conversation, in which Argentina’s scientific priorities were analyzed.”
And he noted “two aspects of importance: that last week one of Argentina’s most important scientists, Luis Caffarelli, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Mathematics, I had to accompany him when he received it from the King of Norway at the Academy. Norway Science and Letters; and this afternoon another Argentine scientist from the Canadian Embassy also received an award that will be the most important for medicine from the Canadian government.
“We talked a little more precisely, how is the development of Argentina, which has immense potential from a scientific point of view; and the priority in other areas, which seemed important to us,” concluded the minister.
In this context, he indicated that “both the Chief of Staff and the President have defined the priorities that are the nuclear sector.”
And he underlined that “we were looking at the development of the Carrom (reactor) with the President recently”; In addition to the “satellite sector”, in which “we were recently with the President at the CONAE (National Commission for Space Activities) in Córdoba”; and “the sector of biotechnology, which is the sector that allows us precisely both the sector of health and the sector of agriculture, to generate additional profits by adding value through Argentine work and creativity.”
Filmus clarified, “The meeting therefore had no political influence, but focused mainly on scientific and technological issues in Argentina.”
On the other hand, regarding the repatriation of scientists, he recalled that “we had a negative balance” between 2015 and 2019 because the RICE program “created in 2003 and later became law in 2008, ceased to be implemented.” ”
“So we returned to recover the idea of repatriating scientists who continued to return to the country and we are recovering a significant number of scientists every year, but we started another program which we will be launching next week Will announce, but the call had already been made for two months,” the minister said.
In this context, he explained that “next week we will reach out to those who lived, what is called the Federal Routes Program”, aimed at “scientists who left their province, their towns and came to the big cities” and that The bar will cover the first 14 cases.
Furthermore, Filmus highlights that “at the moment there are 1,400 Argentine scientists working in Argentina in a network from abroad.”
“In fact, the scientist I recently referred to” who is in Canada “is precisely an Argentinian scientist who works for CONICET from abroad,” he concluded.
